Clarkson later added: "I'm out with a friend who say he doesn't know where Doncaster is. That must change."

The TV presenter and motoring journalist has already attracted a mix of positive and negative responses to his plans, including comment from former Labour deputy prime minister Lord John Prescott, who suggested that Clarkson should "stand in Chipping Norton, where you live now".

Doncaster North is represented by Labour's leader of the opposition Ed Miliband, who took the seat in the 2005 general election.

Chipping Norton, meanwhile, lies in British prime minister David Cameron's constituency of Witney.